Certain providers of telecommunications services, such as AT&T, maintain networks that include facilities for transmitting voice, video, and/or data and separate facilities for transmitting signaling information. The signaling information is transmitted "out-of-band", that is, the signaling information is transmitted on trunks separate from those carrying the voice, video, and/or data. AT&T's signaling network, referred to as the Common Channel Signaling System 7 (CCSS7), is well known. The CCSS 7 signaling network utilizes high-speed links to provide rapid transmission of signaling information between network elements to communicate information associated with call set-up and break down.
In the past, the signaling network maintained by most telecommunication service providers has been closed except to other telecommunication services providers who require interconnection to facilitate call completion between carriers. Recently, some telecommunication providers, such as AT&T, have opened their signaling networks to non-telecommunication service providers, to allow such non-service providers to transmit traffic in exchange for a fee, usually based on the rate of traffic. For ease of discussion, signaling traffic from non-telecommunications service providers is referred to as "alien" traffic, as opposed to signaling traffic generated by telecommunications service providers for call processing purposes.
While the amount of alien traffic is presently small, as compared to signaling traffic generated by telecommunications service providers, the amount of alien traffic will likely increase in the future. Consequently, the likelihood that providers of alien traffic will abuse the signaling network will increase. Indeed, excessive amounts of alien traffic could adversely impact the signaling network, possibly resulting in service outages.
Thus, there is need for a technique for monitoring signaling traffic in network.